An 89th-minute own goal by Jostein Gundersen spared Tottenham’s blushes and earned them a fortunate 2-2 draw away to Bodo/Glimt in the Champions League.
Spurs were back at Aspmyra Stadion four months on from success in the Europa League semi-finals, but this time they were second best for long periods.
After a one-sided first half where Kasper Hogh missed a penalty for the Norwegian minnows, Bodo looked on course to claim revenge after two fine strikes shortly after the break by Jens Petter Haugh.
Tottenham’s stand-in captain Micky van de Ven reduced the deficit in the 68th minute and Thomas Frank watched his side fight back for the third time this month when Gundersen inadvertently deflected the ball in after Bodo goalkeeper Nikita Haikin saved Archie Gray’s shot.
It earned Spurs a point to move them onto four in the Champions League, but Bodo boss Kjetil Knutsen would have wondered how his team failed to win after a dominant display.
After fireworks welcomed the teams onto the pitch, Tottenham were quickly pinned back and Guglielmo Vicario tipped over Patrick Berg’s dipping long-range strike in the fourth minute.
Richarlison fluffed his lines soon after when Lucas Bergvall’s superb cross was missed by Bodo defender Haitam Aleesami, but the Spurs forward could not correct his feet quick enough to test Haikin.
A header by Odin Bjortuft was well claimed by Vicario before Brennan Johnson sliced over from 20 yards after a corner for the visitors on the half-hour mark.
Two minutes later and the hosts were awarded a penalty by referee Ivan Kruzliak after Rodrigo Bentancur caught Fredrik Bjorkan.
VAR upheld the decision only for Hogh to squander the spot-kick in embarrassing fashion after he blazed the ball over.
Knutsen could not believe it and then saw Sondre Fet smash an effort off target from eight yards.
It remained goalless, but Bodo needed only eight second-half minutes to open the scoring. Hakon Evjen played the ball out wide to Hauge, who cut inside both Pedro Porro and Johnson after a fine decoy run by Bjorkan and curled into the bottom corner.
Tottenham responded within 120 seconds as Bentancur flicked home a shot-cum-cross from Johnson, but it was eventually ruled out with Van de Ven adjudged to have pulled back the shirt of Bjortuft from Porro’s initial free-kick.
Berg should have made it 2-0 moments later, but smashed his shot against team-mate Evjen.
Frank had seen enough and sent on Xavi Simons and Mohammed Kudus only for Bodo to grab a second in the 66th minute.
It was a catalogue of errors as Van de Ven’s awkward pass to Vicario was sliced in the air and after Djed Spence could only flick to Evjen, the Bodo midfielder picked out Hauge, who arrowed the ball into the bottom corner.
Spurs again rallied and Van de Ven converted Porro’s brilliant cross to set up a grandstand finish.
Xavi almost levelled with six minutes of normal time left, but his brilliant diving header from Kudus’ delivery hit the woodwork.
Spurs did grab an equaliser, though, with 89 minutes on the clock as Gray got forward well and his effort was kicked out by Haikin straight onto Bodo substitute Gundersen, who diverted into his own net two minutes after being introduced.
There was still time for Ole Didrik Blomberg to drill a chance wide from inside the area before the spoils were shared in Norway.
PA
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